Very often in wireless communications devices, it is not possible to get the same performance from different versions of the same integrated circuit chip. These performance variations may lead to undesirable variations in overall product performance. For instance, wireless communications devices, such as cellular telephones, typically rely on Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chips to handle incoming and outgoing radio transmissions. During a production run of wireless communications devices, the same type ASIC chip may be from different revision levels of same chip manufacturer and/or from different chip manufacturers. These different "versions" of the same ASIC chip may have slightly different power profiles, such as having different variable gain amplifier power curves and the like. In addition, some chip versions may have certain functionality built in, such as a power saving mode of operation or a particular optional modulation approach, while others may not.
While it is possible to accommodate the different versions of integrated circuit chips via various factory settings in the wireless communications device, it is necessary for the version of the integrated circuit chip to be known in order to make such factory settings. Under the prior art, there are two main approaches for determining the version of the integrated circuit chip: the reel marking approach and the vision system approach. In the reel marking approach, a reel of integrated circuit chips is marked with version information. This version information is then read off the reel manually or by bar code reader or the like. Such a system is susceptible to errors, such as by erroneously reading the version information off an empty reel when loading a new full reel, thereby failing to maintain version information integrity. The vision system approach relies on a marking placed on each individual chip by the chip manufacturer. This marking is read by an automated vision system during the overall device manufacturing process and correlated to a integrated circuit chip version. However, this method may require significant space on the external viewable portion of the integrated circuit chip which may not always be present with the shrinking sizes of integrated circuit chips. In addition, the marking may add cost to the integrated circuit chip. Using either approach, once the chip version is known, the device manufacturer selects and loads the corresponding factory settings into the device using techniques well known in the art.
Thus, it is apparent that there remains a need for a method of dealing with different versions of integrated circuit chips during the manufacture of wireless communications devices that is less susceptible to human error and that does not rely on the physical packaging size of the chip.